Al-Qaeda controls western Iraq: US intelligence report

AFP ^ | November 28 2006

[jmc1969]

US forces can neither crush the insurgency in western Iraq nor counter the rising popularity of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network in the area, media reported, citing a secret Marine Corps intelligence report.

As of mid-November the problems remained the same, a senior US intelligence official told the Post. "The fundamental questions of lack of control, growth of the insurgency and criminality" remain the same, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

According to the report, "the social and political situation has deteriorated to a point" that US and Iraqi troops "are no longer capable of militarily defeating the insurgency in al-Anbar," the Post reported.

The secret report was written by Marine Colonel Peter Devlin, a senior military intelligence officer with the Marine Expeditionary Force in the region. According to the Post, it did not appear to have been shared with Iraq's military.

Iraq's Sunni population is "embroiled in a daily fight for survival," fears "pogroms" by the Shiite majority, and is increasingly dependent on Al-Qaeda in Iraq as its only hope against growing Iranian dominance in Baghdad, the report reads.

"From the Sunni perspective, their greatest fears have been realized: Iran controls Baghdad and Anbaris have been marginalized," says the report, according to the Post.

Barring an additional 15,000 to 20,000 US troops deployed to the region in addition to billions of dollars in aid, "there is nothing" US troops "can do to influence" the insurgency, the report reads.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

Faux-sNooze reported on this same subject. The lead was "Leaked Marine memo".

[brazzaville]

Good morning.
"Anything pessimistic gets leaked and everything positive gets buried."

Wasn't there a thread yesterday about tribes in the Anbar Province dusting 55 bad guys, many of whom were not Iraqi?

That would sort of give the lie to this article, I would think.

This article is from AFP. That means that it will always be anti American and not to be trusted.

Michael Frazier

[Rick.Donaldson]

I think we should call for an IMMEDIATE evacuation and 20 minutes later nuke the place. :)

[Azzurri]

No kidding. Why don't we just carpet bomb the entire area incessantly and violently?

If Al Qaeda controls Anbar, then destroy it utterly and completely. How simple can it get?

[GingisK]

Al-Qaeda controls western Iraq...

Perfect opportunity to get rid of all that nasty VX gas stored hither and yon.

[TomasUSMC]

AND placing the severe >threat< of force on Syria and Iran

---

No more threat, we need to ACT against Syria and Iran. Annihilate those two regimes.

[furquhart]

I say we let the Mahdi Army and the rest at the Sunnis for a bit, then kill the Mahdis after they're done.

[Sword_Svalbardt]

Time to start ripping up Al-Qaeda, bust out those fighter planes and the bunker busters.

SS

[Williams]

Whether or not we annihilate them, I certainly did not mean we should make idle threats. Our soldiers are in the field, and we shouldn't tolerate them being endangered by terrorist sponsoring regimes. At the moment the fight seems to have gone out of the Bush administration.

[dynoman]

As others have mentioned, counter that with this from stratfor.com;

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1744241/posts

[Sender]

If the Iraqis there took out 55 bad guys, that is good news indeed.

[j_k_l]

Al-Qaeda controls western Iraq: US intelligence report

Impossible. There are no terrorists in Iraq. They are just peace loving people whose oil we wanted to steal.

[hoyaloya]

The Sunni's worst fears have come true?

Hmmm. Who's fault is that other than their own? They've facilitated al-qaeda in their midst. They shrugged their shoulders during Zarqawi's and the Baathist's insurgency against U.S. forces and later terrorist attacks on Shiites.

They could have worked with the U.S. and been the biggest proponents of a secular government. Instead, they chose hostility. In return they will be marginalized, not unlike the Shiites were when they harassed the British early in the 20th century.

It was inevitable that should either side choose not to participate, they would be marginalized. The best alternative for a rational thinker? To both participate in the hopes you don't end up on the business end of a civil war.

[Prince Caspian]

Nancy's fault.

[The_Reader_David]

There seems to be a disconnect between the assessment in the leak and the fact that the Abu Soda and Abu Mahal tribes (and I seem to recall 10 other Sunni tribe in Al Anbar province) are fighting against al Qaeda, and getting
air support from US forces.

[Wild Irish Rogue]

" Paging Mr. Gonzales:"

BWAAA!!! The only thing Alberto seems interested in is getting justice for Valerie Plame.
If Gonzalez had ordered an investigation and convened a grand jury to investigate leak after leak after leak of classified documents..I would think that the NYT and WaPo would be more hesitant to print classified information.
But, instead , they've become more brazen. They know they have nothing to fear.
I do not understand how this administration can passively tolerate the constant violations of national security.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"The secret report...'

Huh?

AFP=Agence France-Presse.

'Nuff said.

[word_warrior_bob]

Great, we have a region they control. Carpet bomb 24/7 for about 2 weeks, collateral damage be damned.

[af_vet_rr]

In this case it was most likely the Marines themselves, we have lost over a thousand US troops in Anbar and still we don't have nearly enough troops to do real damage to the insurgency there.

It's only a thousand though - the media acts like that is some kind of huge number of American losses, when it's actually very low considering we are running a country of 20+ million people with only 150,000 or so personnel plus assorted contractors/allies.

We could do damage to the insurgency and Iraqi radicals, but it would mean a sharp increase in collateral damage. The administration does not want that kind of press, and the radicals know this and continue to hide out among the civilians.